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One Character To Craft Them All

I prefer to have a single master crafter of all things. The only downside I can see to splitting up crafting between several alts is the Motifs. Unless you put all 3 of the Motif professions (Blacksmith, Wood, Cloth/Leather) on a single alt, it would be very expensive to have all the Motifs on multiple characters.

I disagree. I have 16 characters, all 8 on the NA server have the 8 blue racials. The reason why I have them all and regularly pick up more, which I sell, is because I am constantly looking for new recipes. Originally it was because I was trying to find one L15 recipe from EP, that took a month and netted me all the racials multiple times over. From what I've read on the forums, the L10/L15 recipes are still harder to find than the racial books.

@Nestor, why would you say it's not a good idea? There are many posts here from those who have done it successfully, myself included.

Why is it not a good idea, so long as one knows the pros and cons?

Skill Points and Inventory are the main reasons. Note I did not say it was impossible, just not a good idea. I used to think that making a character who is a crafter and deadly was a perfectly sane thing to do. Until I made a non crafting character. Wow, did the light switch turn on then.

Now, yes, once your to VR14, you have enough skill points. However up until that level, and certainly starting a new character in the game, putting all your crafting on one character is not going to work well if you want to be deadly, or deadly before you get to the VR Ranks. Or you can be a two skill rotation for the entire game (entirely possible with some skill lines)

Inventory management is the other issue. Even at 140 to 170 slots on the characters and more than 200 in the bank, I can't see one character being able to hold all the crafting inventory that they would need and be able to loot anything efficiently. NOt to mention being able to afford that amount of bag space before deep in the VR Ranks. The only reason my Templar is 200K to the 240K goal she needs to unlock the last 30 bank spaces is simply because she can vendor loot/sell loot in the guild stores. And, she has the bag space to make loot farming reasonable.

Heck, my clothier/WW can barely carry what she needs and loot. As it stands now, I am leaving dungeons and delves halfway through them to empty bags. No, I can't leave an unlooted corpse behind, it's not cricket I tell you. It was even worse back when she was neck deep in researching traits, she had no bag space to use, so she was parked for 2 months. Now, of course I have this silly idea that a crafter should be able to make stuff for any level character. Some only craft for VR14, and that does reduce inventory needs significantly. Me, I can craft for anyone at anytime, with the occasional mule log for large orders.

To split up the equipment crafting to WW/Cloth on one, Blacksmithing on another allows for characters to carry the inventory they need, but still have room to loot or whatever or have skills to fight with. Plus, they can pick up support crafts like Provisioning and Alchemy as skill points allow. Enchanting could work like this too, but I only have one enchanter because I don't make glyphs for others and I don't need enchanting that often. Enchanting is still not easy to level, but again, how many enchanters do you really need?

So, can it be done, sure. But when I have made alts who are non crafters and have no skills in crating at all, it is amazing how fast I can build them up as I am leveling them, and have all or most of the skill lines for combat and defense fully leveled by the early VR ranks. And how rich they get, money is easy to get from Vendors in this game if your not deconning everything. I used to think that Templars were the OP class of the game, as that was my first non crafting character. Nope it's just she has all the skill points she needs to be deadly in anyway I want her to be.

So, now I have characters who craft, and characters who fight. I find the game much more enjoyable this way. The crafters are deadly enough that they can farm or get to the crafting stations. The only time it is an issue is when I have to log to a crafter. But, I would be logging to an inventory mule anyway at some point, so what's the difference? I craft most things in batches, so I only need to cook once a week or so, make potions once a week or so etc. I don't make gear that often, so my two equipment crafters mostly just hangout in a crafting hub.

True, I have a bunch of characters doing Provisioning writs, but I am only doing that to chase recipes.

Now that I am VR14 with spare skill points, I am happy to have an all-in-one crafter. But everything you say is true. Skill points limited me in crafting and combat. This did not end until recently, with SOME relief once getting to Caldwell for skyshards. I snuck everywhere in AD because I was mostly still too weak from lack of skills for the zones. And I had no choice but use mules to deal with inventory. And even then bag space was a struggle. For me, it was worth the struggle, but for anyone considering making a single crafter, know that it is a hard struggle that is it's own reward.

PC/NA/DC

Breton Sorcerer Maester.White - BB meets GoT >Master Crafter< { 9 Traits completed 4/23/15 }TANSTAAFL--->There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.....Robert HeinleinWomen and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea....Heinlein All those moments will be lost in time, like tears...in...rain. Time to die. "Blade Runner"ESO: the game you hate to love and love to hate....( >_<) May RNG be with you (*,_,*)

I have a buddy who put all his crafting on one character and has every single skyshard in Tamriel; I had to suggest he use his alts to refine so he could have a few more points to spend in warfare... if you're only gonna be here a coupla months then no prob... but...

I have a buddy who put all his crafting on one character and has every single skyshard in Tamriel; I had to suggest he use his alts to refine so he could have a few more points to spend in warfare... if you're only gonna be here a coupla months then no prob... but...

Don't know what level your buddy is, but you can't really have a viable do-all build until later, when it's very doable. I have every class line, 3 weapon lines, fighter's guild, complete racial line, 85 skill points in crafting, and 20 more left over at VR11. It's just really a personal choice, in the end- there are upsides and downsides to each. But I like going to one source for my crafting.

I disagree. I have 16 characters, all 8 on the NA server have the 8 blue racials. The reason why I have them all and regularly pick up more, which I sell, is because I am constantly looking for new recipes. Originally it was because I was trying to find one L15 recipe from EP, that took a month and netted me all the racials multiple times over. From what I've read on the forums, the L10/L15 recipes are still harder to find than the racial books.

Yeah sure, Motifs 1 thru 9 are easy trash Motifs to pickup or buy. It's those other 5 Motifs (the Purple and Gold) that will cost a fortune to have on multiple alts, was my point.

I disagree. I have 16 characters, all 8 on the NA server have the 8 blue racials. The reason why I have them all and regularly pick up more, which I sell, is because I am constantly looking for new recipes. Originally it was because I was trying to find one L15 recipe from EP, that took a month and netted me all the racials multiple times over. From what I've read on the forums, the L10/L15 recipes are still harder to find than the racial books.

Yeah sure, Motifs 1 thru 9 are easy trash Motifs to pickup or buy. It's those other 5 Motifs (the Purple and Gold) that will cost a fortune to have on multiple alts, was my point.

Not necessarily true about the epic motifs. I have multiples of several found in normal play stashed away (watching prices). Probably only the Imperial would be expensive and hard to come by.
Not having to chase all those motifs is one of the advantages of at least consolidating equipment crafts on on character.

PC/NA/DC

Breton Sorcerer Maester.White - BB meets GoT >Master Crafter< { 9 Traits completed 4/23/15 }TANSTAAFL--->There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.....Robert HeinleinWomen and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea....Heinlein All those moments will be lost in time, like tears...in...rain. Time to die. "Blade Runner"ESO: the game you hate to love and love to hate....( >_<) May RNG be with you (*,_,*)

Two hardest goals for a character in this game are PvP ranks and crafting knowledge. Those two i would never put to same character. A crafter who has max skill points in all professions can have one good build but is somewhat inflexible. It will probably take almost a year before the inflexibility starts to bother. If you dabble into multiple things like dps and tank at the same time, vampirism, legerdemain, undaunted and switch between stamina-magicka it will be an issue.

My advise to new players is to always create two characters - one fighter and one crafter. It gives advantage in early game and more flexibility in the long run. And you will need literally run long to develop full crafting knowledge. The idea with two characters is to make both as crafters. The fighter learns quickly enough to be useful and the main crafter learns slowly but aims to get full crafting knowledge. The fighter aims to useful traits on selected gear quickly and the crafter to nine traits in minimum time. The fighter is actually your main crafter first half year. When your crafter starts reaching good level you can move some crafts over to it and get good bunch of skill points to level up more fighting skills on the main fighter.

For the first months the only things you need to do with the crafter is that it learns new traits and recipes and deconstructs all glyphs. These are the skills/knowledge that takes very long time to collect, will benefit only after long time and would later lock your main to crafting. Remember that when you have nine traits learned on one character that profession is effectively locked to that character.

The fighter should learn crafting too and is the character you play 90% of your time. For new player, level the armor/weapon crafting skills first to the fighter and secondly to the crafter. This way you get early into crafting. The fighter can concentrate just to learn "handyman" skills, which are enough for everyday needs. The armor is as good in Breton style as in Primal. Even when there are alot of recipes you end up making only few. Teach Keen Eye skill to your fighter for farming. Learn only the useful traits like infused, divines and precise prioritizing gear you actually use. Don't ever start sturdy or well-fitted just to fill up learning queue, lest you will later study a useful trait for a month. You can teach and "store" the useless traits to third character to keep bank free of clutter.

The main crafter is in early months just a mule collecting traits, recipes and motifs. Teach provisioning and enchanting directly to the crafter. You do need to advance the character somewhat and it needs some skillpoints to advance learning of those professions. Somewhere around six months you should really start pushing the crafter to higher levels. The fighter can now feed high level gear for deconstruction and the crafter can easily reach 50 on gear crafting skills. Get at least 100 skill points, open all crafting skills and your master crafter is ready. By now you should have at least six traits on all gear of your preferred gear types. With that you can craft most of the good gear. Plan to reach VR1 on crafter when your fighter reaches VR14.

Alchemy is an easy to learn craft and can reside on either toon. If you have imperial edition make the crafter imperial. You get then the most expensive style for free. You should also consider creating a second crafter. The main reason is to divide trait learning on blacksmithing and clothing. The main crafter can learn e.g. weapons and light armor and the second crafter heavy and medium armor.

If you have played only one character from the start and you keep running out of skill points, you can still create a secondary crafter, twink it and move some crafts to it. It's relatively easy to level up an alt and move alchemy, enchanting and woodworking. You can move also provisioning and teach a minimum set of recipes to the alt. The main can still collect recipes if you are into it.

The idea with two characters is to make both as crafters. The fighter learns quickly enough to be useful and the main crafter learns slowly but aims to get full crafting knowledge. The fighter aims to useful traits on selected gear quickly and the crafter to nine traits in minimum time. The fighter is actually your main crafter first half year. When your crafter starts reaching good level you can move some crafts over to it and get good bunch of skill points to level up more fighting skills on the main fighter.

One good thing about this technique is you can level your crafting skill and invest just a few points into it. 3/4 points for research, and maybe some points into Extraction. But you decon whatever you can from the fighter with the crafter. By the time your ready to feed your crafter some skill points to flesh out their crafting chops, they already have most of the levels and most if not all the research done.

Excellent information. Thanks for that. I find I'm already juggling my inventory about so might have to create a mule anyway. Need to try and get a hold of some cash to upgrade my bank and character up so will look into that.

Excellent information. Thanks for that. I find I'm already juggling my inventory about so might have to create a mule anyway. Need to try and get a hold of some cash to upgrade my bank and character up so will look into that.

Do you have the Imperial Edition? If so, buy the 1 Gold Horse and start increasing it's bag spaces. It is the cheapest way to get 60 Bags, it just takes two months to do so. But, on your mule, it won't be too bad and before you know it, you will have lots of cheap space. So, your at 15K for that. You can do the first 3 upgrades on your character for less than 10K (400, 2000, 5900) so for 25K you can get 90 bag spaces added to your original 60, so 150 bag spaces. Even if you have to buy the 10,000 gold horse, your looking at 35K, and you can make that in two hours in a public dungeon vendoring loot to in game merchants. Two Mules and your set for crafting storage for all lines.

That takes the need to upgrade the bank which is much more expensive to do away until you can afford it. Plus doing this with the horses spreads the costs out, so it never seems like too much to spend.

Yeah I've got the imperial edition. Been working on his bags for a while now. Up to about 24 or something like that. Earning little bits here and there from buying from Guild Merchants and selling. But will take me a while to do anything. In the meantime going to work on my Main Character , get her levelled.

It is amazing how much Gold you can make from just straight up questing. Now, as I alluded in an earlier post, I was leveling crafting and characters at the same time. Which meant I deconstructed everything and nothing got sold. So, while I was not poor, I would get 10K completing zone 1, 12 to 15K completing zone 2 etc. However with the last character who I could just sell everything with, and with the gold from mobs and quests, and even upgrading 3 horses, her bag space and the bank, I was getting 20K in the first zone, and increasing that for each zone. By the 5th zone, I was getting about 35K to 40K in that zone alone. Then it went up in the VR zones.

The other way to get a lot of gold, like 5K to 10K an hour in gold, if not more, is to farm a public dungeon or a delve and sell the loot. You will pay back about 1/3 of the gold in repairs, but you will still make 5K to 10K an hour if your efficient. By efficient I mean you go into the dungeon or delve with 60 to 80 bag spaces open for loot, and only leave when they are full. Go back to town, vendor the stuff (not kiosks, just game vendors for base price), repair your gear, replace your potions if you need to, then go back. Mehrunes Spite in VR1 Auridon, I was pulling 5K in gold in about 20 minutes, and there is a merchant who patrols by the wayshrine near that place, so ultra efficient. Sanguines Demense in Shadowfen has a Merchant in the Dungeon, so you never have to leave.

Note, a Delve is a Solo dungeon, so the mob density is lower, but you can survive more easily, but public dungeons give you larger mob groups to chew on, so you get more per resource used. And, once you learn the spawn points, you can sneak up and get the drop on mobs. Also, dungeons and delves have multiple chest spawn locations, some more than a dozen, so look for those as you spend time in there.

Not necessarily true about the epic motifs. I have multiples of several found in normal play stashed away (watching prices). Probably only the Imperial would be expensive and hard to come by.
Not having to chase all those motifs is one of the advantages of at least consolidating equipment crafts on on character.

I only wish I had your RNG Karma! I've been playing since launch and have only found 4 Epic Motifs. That is two different ones (Barbaric & Primal) and duplicates of the two I already found. The other 3 Epic Motifs I have had to buy. So for me it would take a lot of gold to have more than just my main crafter doing all armor & weapon crafting in all Motifs.

I have a jack-of all trades crafter. He was my first character that is now so far into researching that I simply do not want to repeat the leveling and research experience again. Some things to remember:

1- Skill points. This can be a real problem while leveling up that you will not be able to find enough sky shards and points early in the game to keep up with crafting and combat skills and passives at the same time. This does level out as you get to Caldwell's Silver and Gold zones as you will earn the quest reward skill points and sky shards as you go. We will come back to this in a second.

2- Combat or crafting but not both really feasible. You will find that once you put a point into all crafting skills you cannot make a character the way you want him. Assume for a second you do both PvE and PvP. Your build may be different for each. You may have a single target build and an AoE build also. You will find that you become locked into one or two builds at most for the character and that's all the points you have. Unless you are really wanting to pay respec costs each time you want to craft something or go fight. But remember that can be expensive so best to find one build, maybe two, with passives and that's all you get really.

3- Research times. At the high end you talking about 30 days to research one trait. Like me, I am so far in I could not fathom doing it all again on another toon. But, If you have the time you could have the crafter make a trait then put it in the bank for your second toon to research. This way you could feasibly have 2 jack of all trades but will take a long time to accomplish.

4- Motifs This is a joke but I will comment anyways. The first 9 motifs (Breton, Argonian, etc) are a joke to find or buy. They sell for between 250 and 600 gold in chat all day long so not very expensive. Primal and Barbaric motifs can each be found in a about 1-2 hours of farming trunks, tables and such in Caldwell's Silver zones. Daedric and Ancient Elf motifs can also be found in 1-2 hours of farming for each one. They are found the same way as Barbaric and Primal but are found in Caldwell's Gold zones (i.e.: the second alliance zone you go to for your faction. DC goes to ad for Caldwell's silver and then EP for Caldwell's gold so a DC player will be looking in EP territory for a Daedric motif. With the money saved from farming these purple motifs you can buy the imperial motif for about 50k, plus or minus a little. Like someone else said, you could make your imperial a crafter than can save the money. Imperial motif is the hardest to find but can be found anywhere in any vet or normal zone. The Dwemer motifs are also easy to find in Dwemer pots inside Dwemer ruins. As you go sell or trade the duplicates you get for gold and simply buy the ones you need while continuing to farm. In the end you may have to pay 20k or so for chests but the rest are between 4-12k. Selling or trading duplicates will keep your cost down. All the motifs and pages can be found in one weekend with exception of imperial. Don't drive yourself nuts looking for it and spend the cash to buy the thing and get it over with. If you find one later you can sell it to make your money back.

5- This is an MMO so think of the future. Eventually ESO will come out with an expansion of some kind that will raise the current crafting cap from level 50 to let's say level 60. The craft will then have new passives for points and requirements for making the new stuff. Now you will have to spend even more points to do the additional levels and if you do not have the points you will then need to level the character and find some. Yes you may already have the points and any new expansion should contain enough points to cover the content but if you want to craft everything extra points always helps so you can play the character to find mats at least. This will definitely come into play if they release spell crafting and jewelry so you can keep your jack of all trades character and still have the points for the new crafting professions. Point is you do not know what they are going to do so make sure you have room to spare.

Funny you say that about the imperial motif as I started my new main character the other day and when going into the mages guild in at the start i opened a closet and got the imperial motif!!!

I'm tempted to sell it to pay for bank and backpack upgrades as they seem to be selling around the 80k mark. But may just use it myself.

I have never found the Imperial, and I have found more than 300 Motifs (99% pre 1.6). Well, I did find one early on but destroyed it as I had no bag space (and this was when they were not rare drops)

If you have the Imperial Edition, you can roll an Imperial to convert any gear to Imperial then give them to the character you want to wear them. You just won't be able to craft for other players in the style.

Personally, I would keep it unless you just have major inventory needs and no character slots with which to create a Mule Alt.

Funny you say that about the imperial motif as I started my new main character the other day and when going into the mages guild in at the start i opened a closet and got the imperial motif!!!

I'm tempted to sell it to pay for bank and backpack upgrades as they seem to be selling around the 80k mark. But may just use it myself.

I have never found the Imperial, and I have found more than 300 Motifs (99% pre 1.6). Well, I did find one early on but destroyed it as I had no bag space (and this was when they were not rare drops)

If you have the Imperial Edition, you can roll an Imperial to convert any gear to Imperial then give them to the character you want to wear them. You just won't be able to craft for other players in the style.

Personally, I would keep it unless you just have major inventory needs and no character slots with which to create a Mule Alt.

I do have that edition but tbh I can't see me creating anything in that style. It will probably be deadric or dwemer. Unless there's andemand for crafted imperial stuff of course.

I have all crafts to 50, and inventory space is not all that much of an issue (210 bank space currently). My combat skills are maxed, bar undaunted skills (not much of a pve person), and still have 8 or 9 skill points free. It does take a while to get enough skill points to be good at everything, but if you are like me and hate alts, it is worth it.

I did it for my NB when I came back. However, I really wanted to focus on enchanting and clothing for medium armor. Currently he's my only Vet level character, and he has a diverse set of skills/gear. I like to use sword and board, bow, 2hander, and dual wield. I don't use full medium armor I go 5 medium 2 heavy, so even then I had to make sure my blacksmithing was up to snuff as well. I still have 19 unused skill points at Vet2 with blacksmithing, woodworking, enchanting, and clothing all over 35, so the skill point investment really isn't a big deal IMO.

I'm sure many have stated it already but inventory space will be your biggest adversary. I must delete 50 "racial stones" a day because I have no space for them.

I'm glad I chose this route. I have one toon that can make many styles and good traits. I don't have to worry about crafting gear while leveling. I don't need to pick up every vein or herb I see.

Not necessarily true about the epic motifs. I have multiples of several found in normal play stashed away (watching prices). Probably only the Imperial would be expensive and hard to come by.
Not having to chase all those motifs is one of the advantages of at least consolidating equipment crafts on on character.

Purple motifs go anywhere from 20-40k.
Purple recipes are almost worthless, if they're over 6k no one wants to buy them.

I have one main crafter, she is lvl 50 in all crafting and maxed in all her skills. She has learned all the motifs and has learned over 400 recipes. She will have all nine traits in BS, WW and Cloth in about another month.

This was the most economical and efficient use of resources for me.

While I was leveling, i would research items and not spend too many skill points in crafting skills. When i got to v6 I restated my toon and made her a pure crafter. lol I had one heal spell, one defensive spell and one offensive spell when i was done.

She is now in Caldwell Gold. I have to ask for help with some things, but for the most part I can handle things myself. Yeah i die more than my other two vet toons, but I do not regret the decision to have ONE master crafter. My guild mates like it also as they get the extra motifs and recipes I find.

This strategy worked for me and now that i am almost done, I do not regret my decision.